Non-Trad Undergrad

By Gretchen Kalhust

On his website, The Escapist, William J. Walton asks his readers to think of role playing games as “a form of interactive storytelling, in which all of the participants act out the roles of characters in the story.” Walton writes that role-playing is an adult version of a child’s game of pretend.

To outsiders, role-playing games and those who play them are often misunderstood. The Memphis Role Players’ Association at the University of Memphis was founded in 2008 with the purpose of bringing role-players together and to clear up misconceptions about the hobby.

James Beel, 21, a University of Memphis management information systems major and founding member and former president of the Memphis Role Players’ Association admits that he sometimes struggles with how role-players are characterized as solitary loners.

“That image is completely wrong because you can’t role-play by yourself. Well, you can but it is very, very boring. It’s a very social activity,” said Beel.

Beel said that he sought out role-playing to relieve the boredom he felt after playing video games.

“On the back pamphlet of one of my video games it said ‘Dungeons and Dragons,’ and I immediately had this image in my head: ‘Oh, I don’t want to be of those people.’”

Beel found a local group of role-players, or what insiders call gamers, and joined them for a game. Later when questioned by a friend about having played Dungeons and Dragons he began gaming seriously.

Allen Antoine, 22, a University of Memphis recording technology major and current president of the Memphis Role Players’ Association explained that there are primarily two types of role-playing games.

“There are the types you do here at a table with paper and pencil and dice and there’s also what you call live-action role-playing where it’s essentially like you are acting out the part of a character in a film that is not being recorded.”

Antoine said that he prefers table-top role-playing.

“I’m very much a fan of sitting down at a table and rolling some dice as opposed to being out there in the world possibly looking foolish.”

One of Antoine’s teachers introduced him to role-playing games with the game Dungeons and Dragons during his freshman year of high school.

“I was like, ‘Great! This is like a video game except the options are endless,’” said Antoine.

Antoine and Beel agree that Dungeons and Dragons is a favorite among role-players and the group’s members.

Introduced in 1974, Dungeons and Dragons was one of the first mass-marketed role-playing games. The game is controlled by a Dungeon Master, or DM, who plays the part of the game’s monsters and enemies, and who also narrates the story and acts as the game’s referee. The players choose their own characters that grow and develop as the game progresses. The game’s manufacturer, The Wizards of the Coast, released the fourth version of the game in September 2010.

Antoine played Dungeons and Dragons for about four years with his teacher and when he came to the University of Memphis he said he missed having a regular role-playing group.

“There are several gaming conventions in the area. I quickly got in on all of those and found myself a group here in the area that I’ve been playing with for five years.”

Antoine and Beel were looking for a way to connect with role-players on campus when the idea of starting a student organization came to Beel.

“I wanted everyone across campus to know that there’s somewhere they can go, that they’re not alone,” said Beel. “They’re not going to be this kid sitting in their basement doing absolutely nothing.”

Registered student organizations, the official student clubs and groups on campus, are allowed by the university to promote themselves more freely than non-registered groups. Beel saw this as an advantage to creating the group.

“Our powers as an RSO are a lot better. As just a group I wouldn’t be able to advertise in all the buildings. I wouldn’t have funding for what we’re doing,” he said.

Membership has more than doubled for the group which initially formed with about 10 members and is now a group of between 25 and 30. The group holds monthly meetings where Antoine disseminates information.

“Generally, I’ll inform people of opportunities that are coming up and let them know about ways that they can get in on events that are happening here on campus,” said Antoine.

Beel, hoping to build on the success of a game day sponsored by the Memphis Role Players’ Association last year, has plans to host a convention this spring. Goals for the three-day convention are to provide a 24-hour facility for game play and to exceed last year’s attendance of 83.

“We previously attempted this and found we could not do it as we needed a substantial sum of money to pay for campus security during the event,” said Antoine

“I want to be able to pay the money to keep the UC open the entire time, 24-hours,” Beel said. “If I want to keep it open 24-hours, it’s going to cost about three to five grand.”

Beel said that he wants to have at least 200 attendees at the upcoming convention and views the event as a way to show role-playing in a positive light.

“Role-players get a bad rap. A lot of people hear us and say, ‘Oh, those are just those nerds that do that.’ The problem is that role-playing is just an activity for a lot of us. Everybody kind of blankets role-players all together; we have other hobbies we do other things,” said Beel. “I absolutely hate it that we’re all grouped together as this one big sect of sweaty, nerdy, anti-social people.”

• For more information about Dungeons and Dragons or The Wizards of the Coast please visit their website: www.wizards.com/DnD
• Information about The Memphis Role Player’s Association can viewed on their website or on the group’s Facebook page.

Tags: gamers, live action role playing, Memphis Role Players' Association, role playing games, role-playing, RPG, University of Memphis

I recently spoke with Allen Antoine, president of the Memphis Role Players’ Association. I asked him to describe how he would explain what role playing is and the following video clip is his very insightful answer.

Tags: gamers, live action role playing, Memphis Role Players' Association, role playing games, role-playing, RPG, University of Memphis

I’ve put together a slideshow of photos to go with the story I wrote about role playing. I’ve posted the slideshow below.

Tags: gamers, live action role playing, Memphis Role Players' Association, role playing games, role-playing, RPG, University of Memphis